Chef Jeff Ramsey talks about using kintsugi as a metaphor for his style of kaiseki at Kintsugi Bangkok.

How does the art of kintsugi translate to kaiseki?

I love Japanese ceramics more than any other and 24 years ago when I was studying as a sushi chef, I decided to go back to school. In school I took ceramics and thought about quitting my job and becoming a ceramist. There are a few similarities like cooking and crafting with your hands, and having to eat it and make the plate to go along with it. It’s a similar process and it’s from the earth, as well. Something very visceral. I guess I finally made the right choice because it’s very difficult to make money being a ceramist.

Kintsugi is beautiful and I love the idea of imperfection and there is beauty in imperfection. That is one of the metaphors that kintsugi says to me — we all go through life, none of us are perfect and we need to live with who we are and cherish what we have; the journey of life. I wanted to do something more Japanese than what I do at Babe and I wanted to focus on doing Japanese food in a way Japanese people don’t do it — non-traditional, yet authentic Japanese, flavour profile and aesthetic. Kintsugi is also about connecting my family roots to the modern age, as well.

It also translates to the high-end ceramics used in Kintsugi, when we break it, we can repair it and then use it again. It’s also about sustainability in that sense. Over a long period of time, the plates that we have here [at Kintsugi Bangkok] will also be kintsugi.

There are two types of kaiseki, why did you choose the set menu style?

There is kaiseki or kaiseki-ryōri in Kyoto, which is a cultural movement. The restaurants there still preserve the old way of doing things and it is about the entire environment, even the floor you’re sitting on. The gestures by the staff serving you, the scrolls on the walls, the flowers or one flower in a vase… the people that work at these places work six days and on their day off they have to attend flower-arrangement classes, calligraphy or tea ceremony classes, so it is very oldschool. The people who go there are going for the entire experience. But outside of Kyoto, it’s a modern setup, it’s the same food but without a garden or any of the other frills. At Kintsugi, we are not striving to do the full cultural thing.

You can use the work kaiseki like a tasting menu and that is why I used it here. At Kintsugi Bangkok, the menu will be omakase; we call it a modern kaiseki but isn’t a sushi restaurant. It has been my dream since I travelled to the north of Kyoto, to a restaurant called Miyamasou. They are known as the first foraging restaurant in Japan, which they started 50 years ago. I spent a week there being the lowest ranking guy and I had a profound experience. I knew this was the kind of restaurant I wanted to do and that was the beginning of Kintsugi Bangkok. I was so moved by what they were doing.

For the menu at Kintsugi Bangkok, which has been the hardest and the easiest dish to create?

It’s still a work in progress. We are waiting for all those kintsugi plates to come from Japan, so I have a window to experiment. At Babe, I also do Japanese and we are running the most Japanese-like flavours from Babe at Kintsugi Bangkok to get started.

It is a good start because we can gauge the kind of flavours that Thai people will like more or less. The great thing about having an open kitchen is that you can, even if they don’t tell you, figure out what people think about the menu. I do want to introduce ingredients and combinations of flavours that people haven’t had before.

One of the dishes on the soft opening menu is eel and it comes from Holland and is as good as the one from Japan. We braise it and take the bones and roast it over charcoal and it goes into a broth, like a bone broth, and that is brushed on the eel while it is grilled over charcoal. It is served with sunchoke puree that is nutty and a vanilla and spice oil. Eel is traditionally paired with burdock, which is a root vegetable, and I find that burdock has a vanilla-like aroma, which I have enhanced with the oil. There is also fried burdock on the plate and fresh thyme, which takes the dish to a different dimension. People will get the connection from the traditional and understand that it was twisted to create something modern.

Another dish is the oyster ice cream. The braising liquid from the eel is turned into a jelly. Which has caviar added to it and oyster tartare and oyster ice cream, which is anything but fishy. The zone I like to live in is where what you see and what you taste doesn’t necessarily match up. It’s not that we are lying to you, but it is hard to imagine what it is going to be like unless you taste it and I love that factor.

How often do you plan to be at Kintsugi, considering you’re not based in Bangkok?

I am considering moving here. I have a lot more to research before I can be sure. To me it is very important the place starts off right and the first year is very crucial. It is my only restaurant in Bangkok and I want to be right and be here as often as I can. By contract, I need to be here once every two months for a week, but that is not going to cut it. Once a month, probably for a week. My chef Panu [head chef at Kintsugi Bangkok] came to Malaysia to train for a month and we wrote a bunch of recipes and he has a cache of back-up for sauces and marinades if he wants to change the menu. We can communicate and whatever he tries here I can try there. It is 2019 and the world is much more connected. I think it is going to come out good.

Kintsugi Bangkok by Jeff Ramsey / The Athenee Hotel, 61 Witthayu Road / Open Wed - Sun 6-10.30pm (last order 10pm) / 02-650-8800, email FB.Theathenee@luxurycollection.com, visit bit.ly/2oHNNGJ.